


Drifting By

by idola



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-04 06:23:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5323847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idola/pseuds/idola
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was nearing finals week and Hakuryuu was worried. Not for himself, but for his boneheaded childhood friend who thought skipping and never studying was going to help him graduate on time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drifting By

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this during last spring's finals instead of studying but never got around to posting it until now

“You got fourteen of the twenty questions correct… Well, it’s an improvement.”

Judar groaned, letting himself slouch until his head was almost touching the pile of blankets he was sitting on. “What about the essay?”

Hakuryuu flipped through the stack of paper in his lap. “It’s kind of difficult to read. Really a shame you can’t turn in a digital copy, your handwriting appears to be a different language entirely. At some point I learned how to read it, but have all your teachers?”

“That’s part of the problem! They don’t even try to read it. They just say it’s messy and fail me.”

Hakuryuu sighed. “It’s not just the… unique way your letters look. Your spelling still needs work, too. I’m not sure what a lot of these words are supposed to be.”

Judar leaned over Hakuryuu’s shoulder, peering down from his place on the bed to where Hakuryuu was sitting propped up against the edge. “Which ones?”

“Like this. Expidision? Does it look right to you?”

“I don’t know. Is it wrong?”

“Painfully so. I’d assume it was supposed to be ‘expedition’, but in the context it doesn’t really make sense.”

“I don’t remember what it was supposed to be.”

Hakuryuu sighed. “That’s another problem. You need to pay more attention to what you’re writing.” Hakuryuu absentmindedly crossed out a couple of unnecessary words on the page. “Or is it too hard for you?”

“It’s not!!” Judar said quickly, grabbing for his corrected paper. “Give me another topic and I’ll do it again.”

Hakuryuu smiled. Tutoring Judar would be a waste of his time for how far behind he was, but Judar really was willing to learn and put a genuine effort into correcting what was wrong. However, this only seemed to be true when Hakuryuu was the one helping him. For as long as he could remember, Judar was at odds with all his teachers and was more likely to do the opposite of what they said than not. Coupled with his tendency to get distracted easily and sleep in class, Judar was far enough behind that Hakuryuu was worried for his future and decided to help out.

It wasn’t like they were really friends or anything. Maybe they had been at one point in time, but Judar had a habit of always getting into things that Hakuryuu wanted nothing to do with. So they’d drifted without ever talking it out. But there was a point where he didn’t feel like he could keep ignoring Judar, and that was now. If he didn’t stage an intervention, no one else would.

Helping had nothing to do with the fact that they’d been closer as kids than they were now. It also had nothing to do with the fact that Hakuryuu didn’t really have anyone else and didn’t want Judar to fail out of high school. Really.

Judar had insisted that he come over to Hakuryuu’s house for it because it was larger, but Hakuryuu had figured out quickly that he only picked Hakuryuu’s house because it had a full refrigerator. For every worksheet he did, Judar whined about being hungry and came back with something sweet. First it was Kougyoku’s fruit for her ‘beauty smoothies,’ then it was chocolate chips, then it was a cup of caramel coffee creamer. Who even drank coffee creamer without coffee? Judar, apparently.

Hakuryuu knew that if Judar ran out of things to eat he’d insist on Hakuryuu baking something for his hard work, so he tried to encourage Judar to eat his family’s food instead of what Hakuryuu wanted. He wasn’t looking forward to his cousins interrupting their study session over it, but hey. They had enough money to replace whatever Judar took, so any whining on their part would be more of annoying than anything.

“You said that you’re good with science and math, right?”

Judar nodded proudly. “Top of the class.”

For all of Judar’s shortcomings in writing, he had a strange knack for equations. Judar had claimed it was because “magic existed but the stupid physicists hadn’t figured out how to use it yet” and he had to do their jobs for them. Hakuryuu listened dubiously but didn’t bother to argue since it was helping him learn.

“How about history?” Hakuryuu asked.

Judar shrugged.

“Who unified the world after King David left it in ruin?”

“Hakuryuu… Come on… Pick an easier question.”

“That was an easy question.” He sighed. “Your finals are next week, right?”

“Yup! Math is first. It’s so early in the morning, I’d rather sleep.” Judar yawned at the thought. “Hey, what time is it anyway? I want to take a nap.”

Hakuryuu checked his phone. “It’s four.” He put his phone down on his bed. Judar picked it up and clicked at it, but put it down when it prompted for a passcode. Like he was about to let Judar of all people snoop through his things.

“My sister will be home soon. You should behave yourself if she comes to check on me.”

Judar stared blankly for a second before smiling. “Ah, she expects me to be like this. You worry too much.”

“You haven’t been over in a long time. I’m sure what she expects is that you’ve grown up and are acting like an adult finally.”

Judar scrunched up his nose. “I’m in high school! I’m no more of an adult than you are.”

“Well, that’s true enough.”

Judar finished his essay and handed it back to Hakuryuu. It was written about how he expected - it was impossible to teach someone how to spell when they’d gone their whole life expecting whoever read it to just figure it out themselves. So he tried to focus on essay structure and content rather than how uniquely the words were written.

“This isn’t as bad as the last one,” Hakuryuu said as he marked correction after correction. Even if he couldn’t teach Judar how to spell in a few days, he might as well let him know his spelling needed work. “Your argument is good, but it kind of jumps around. It’s obvious you got distracted while writing it.”

Judar laughed. “Aren’t you just saying that because you’re the one who distracted me? It’s not like there will be anything distracting in the real final.”

“Do you sit by a window in any of your classes?”

“No.”

“Do you sit in the back row?”

“Yeah. Teachers won’t yell at you for sleeping if they don’t see it.”

“You’ll get distracted by what all the students in front of you are doing.”

Judar blinked. “You know, I guess you’re right. But it’s not like sitting in the front is any less distracting. They’re just annoying from the back then.”

“Maybe, but the point is that you need to keep your essays focused even if you get distracted. Try rereading the whole thing again before adding to it if you forget what you were saying.

Judar grumbled his response. He wasn’t really happy to be taught but was putting up with it anyway. Hakuryuu figured it was because Judar didn’t really want to fail either. It had to be embarrassing, especially for someone like Judar who liked to be good at things.

Hakuryuu did wonder if he was doing something unnecessary at first - maybe Judar was fine with failing. In the past he knew Judar had considered dropping out, too, as more of an incompatibility with the school setting than anything. But Hakuryuu knew that he didn’t like to be fail and ordered Judar to accept his help - and he did, with an enthusiasm that surprised Hakuryuu. They hadn’t been close for years, but Judar’s… appreciation of Hakuryuu hadn’t faded completely.

It wasn’t something that Hakuryuu felt comfortable calling friendship, but Judar never seemed to feel the need to elaborate. He never knew what Judar was thinking anymore. One day he’d think their childhood friendship had long since ended, and the next Judar was clinging to him and petting his head. Hakuryuu would have wondered if Judar only came to see him when he was bored with his usual friends, but his excitement always seemed genuine when they were together. And he wasn’t even sure that Judar had other friends. People he hung out with, sure. But he was hesitant to call them friends.

“Hey, Hakuryuu. Think it’s focused now?” Judar asked as he placed his paper on top of Hakuryuu’s head. Hakuryuu rolled his eyes and took it in his hands, rereading carefully.

“Surprisingly, yes. If you don’t forget what I told you I think you might do okay for this class.”

Judar grinned. “It only took three tries, see? And this was my worst subject.”

“I don’t know about that. I think it’s just your lowest grade because you do the least work for it.” Hakuryuu reached up to the bed to take Judar’s history textbook and flip through it. “History is probably your real worst subject. I understand that it’s boring, but you need at least an approximate idea of everything that happened so you can guess on the exam a little easier.”

Judar sighed overdramatically.

“…Anyway,” Hakuryuu continued, biting back the urge to sigh loudly back at Judar. “I assume all these blank assignments stuffed between the pages could be turned in.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“The best way to learn for now is to do those - most teachers just reuse questions from old assignments and quizzes for finals. And you can improve your grade a little with them, too.”

“It’s so boring though! And I’m almost passing in there anyway. You’re exaggerating how much I suck at it.”

“What were the three countries of the Tenka region before it was united?”

Judar’s face turned blank instantly. It was kind of funny to watch, but in a sad way. “Judar. We live in the Tenka region.” It was an outdated name, but it worked to help Judar remember.

“Oh! Right! That’s Kou, Gai, and… Gao.

“Go.”

“Right. Go.”

“It may have been a thousand years ago, but it’s still important to know. And I know that right now you don’t know. So you need to learn it.”

The conversation ended as a knock rang through the room. “Hakuryuu, do you have someone over?” Hakuei called through the door.

“Yes. It’s Judar.”

“Oh!” She opened the door slowly and looked from Judar to Hakuryuu. “Do you need two anything? I could get you some snacks.” She smiled sincerely; it was sweet of her to ask, but her food… was not so sweet. It wasn’t worth it to take her up on the offer.

“No, it’s okay,” Hakuryuu said before Judar could say anything. “Judar has been emptying the fridge the whole time, we’re good on food.”

Judar yawned again as Hakuryuu politely encouraged Hakuei to leave. She was either not getting the hint on purpose or just plain dense. She continued to chat with Hakuryuu leisurely about what they were having for dinner.

“Hey, Hakuei,” Judar interrupted, “can’t you leave already? I’m falling asleep listening to this.”

Hakuei smiled. “You’re just the same as I remember you.” She looked back at Hakuryuu. “I’m glad you two are still getting along.”

Hakuryuu shrugged. “I’m just helping so he doesn’t have repeat to his last year of school.”

“If I fail enough I can be in your grade and then just copy off all your assignments.”

Hakuryuu elbowed Judar lightly. “Like hell I’d let you if you were that lazy.”

Hakuei laughed. “Well, call me if you need me.”

Hakuei shut the door softly. Hakuryuu sighed in relief.

“You’re so tense all the time,” Judar said as he scribbled some more barely intelligible words on his assignment.

“You’d understand if you had any siblings,” Hakuryuu said.

“It’s not just your siblings!” Judar argued. “You’re like that with your friends too. Not me, though,” he added, looking pleased with himself.

“Shut up, Judar,” Hakuryuu said as he checked over Judar’s shoulder to make he was still focused. Yup, focused as he could get. He sighed and leaned back to see if he could get as comfortable as he was before Hakuei came in.

Hakuryuu knew that Judar was right when he said he was always tense. Hakuryuu couldn’t help it. He just… couldn’t relax around most people. Being around them in the first place was generally a chore. There were very few who he could call his friends, but even with them he couldn’t relax and be himself. And he didn’t really understand why, but Judar was different. Even if he tried to keep Judar at a distance, before he realized it they were arguing about the most mundane topic they could think of. It was fun in its own way.

Judar yawned again, tapping his mechanical pencil as he tried to blink off the sleepiness. He really did look tired. And like he was about to start complaining again.

“Hakuryuu,” Judar whined, “it’s too late to be studying! Let’s do something else instead.”

“It’s not even five yet. If you give up so soon then you’ll risk failing and needing to repeat.”

“Aw, come on. I can keep studying with you until after midnight if you take a nap with me now.”

Hakuryuu raised an eyebrow. Like he’d said, he was hesitant to call it a friendship. The fact that they spoke to each other erratically was one part of it. And this was the other.

He wasn’t sure if Judar realized that his words and tone were flirtatious. Hakuryuu wasn’t really around Judar enough to know how much he dated, if he was… experienced, if what he was doing now was intentional. He didn’t know if he wanted to know or not. So he treated it as if Judar were doing it unintentionally.

“You’ve been eating sugary things all day, I really don’t know how you’re tired.”

Judar yawned again and dropped his assignments on the floor next to Hakuryuu. “Because I’m tired.”

“You’re really giving up, then?”

“No way. But I am really gonna take a nap.”

“That’s my bed. Sleep on the floor or something.”

“I’ve been laying here all day, what difference does it make if I sleep?” Judar whined.

Hakuryuu closed his eyes in thought. It really didn’t make any difference. But it felt… weird, letting someone sleep in his bed. He didn’t like to let Judar win, either. Hakuryuu opened his mouth to respond but noticed Judar had already pushed the books out of his way and placed a pillow over his head to nap.

Hakuryuu sighed. If he was really that tired, fine. He’d take the opportunity to make dinner. Hakuryuu left his room, closing the door quietly behind himself. Across the hallways and down a staircase was the kitchen. Though the house had his whole extended family living in it, Hakuryuu knew the best times to leave his room to be left in peace. Kouen and Koumei were still at work and wouldn’t be back until halfway through the evening, leaving a nicely sized time window in the late afternoon for Hakuryuu to prepare food for himself and Hakuei when she didn’t have classes. His stepfather worked nights and his mother was often away for business, thankfully.

Though Hakuryuu had recently lost his left arm below the elbow, it wasn't too hard to adjust to cooking a little slower. He was slowly working his way back up to cooking quickly - despite his sister's patience, which he was grateful for, Hakuryuu personally preferred cooking to go pretty fast. It didn’t take long for him to throw together something to eat for dinner for himself and his sister. Unlike Judar, they couldn’t live on sweets. Hakuei did her homework while Hakuryuu chopped vegetables.

“How’s the studying going?” Hakuei asked. She had seemed happy for him earlier, but now she seemed more tired than anything. Finals week took its toll on college students too, Hakuryuu reminded himself.

“It’s alright. He has a long way to go if he wants to pass everything without relying on luck.”

Hakuei nodded. After a few minutes of eating in silence she hesitantly spoke again. “I was surprised to see him in there.”

Hakuryuu didn’t respond. He turned off the stove’s heat on the two burners he was using and arranged the meal on two plates.

“Have you two made up?”

Hakuryuu shrugged. He set a dish in front of Hakuei. She mumbled her thanks but didn’t look satisfied with his answer.

Not looking forward to giving Hakuei too many opportunities to chide him, Hakuryuu ate quickly. He didn’t have much of an appetite in the first place and had already accepted his fate of needing to bake Judar dessert later. It was best to save room for it.

Once finished, he picked up his dish and brought it to the sink to clean it. The less of a mess he left, the less he would have to interact with his cousins. The last thing he needed was Kouha whining that he used too many dishes while cooking.

“Hakuryuu,” Hakuei’s voice called from the table. “I don’t know what you were fighting about. But I’m glad you’re giving him another chance. I want you to be happy and I know you aren’t when you’re alone all the time.”

Hakuryuu normally didn’t oppose his sister, but he didn’t like to be told he was wrong about his feelings of wariness either. “If you don’t know him then how can you say that?”

“I don’t think he’s all bad. That’s all.” Hakuei brought her dish to the sink and washed it in silence.

When she finally left, Hakuryuu tried to relax. Easier said than done. He figured it was time for Judar to wake up anyway and started to make a pot of tea- or rather, took the teapot down and then belatedly remembered Judar dumping every cup of tea he was given in the sink as kids. He stood unsure for a moment before deciding on making tea anyway. Maybe Judar just didn’t like it without sugar. Knowing him, the guy probably just never bothered to try it again after not liking it the first time.

Hakuryuu sighed. Look at him, trying to figure out if Judar would like tea or not. He put the teapot away and made a single cup for himself with a tea bag instead. If Judar wanted any, he could make it himself.

Judar was still sleeping when Hakuryuu reentered his room. He set his teacup down on a book and was about to tell Judar to get up since it had already been almost two hours, and - huh?

As soon as Hakuryuu noticed the line of drool from Judar’s mouth he had to turn away to keep himself from laughing loudly. Judar looked too comfortable to be alive and too covered in drool to look happy. It was enough to make his day.

Maybe Hakuei was right, he caught himself thinking as he tried to shake Judar awake and was met with a sour expression and Judar curling himself into a ball in opposition. Maybe Judar hadn’t changed as much as he thought.

“Fuck off, Hakuryuu. I slept here so it’s my bed now. Let me sleep.”

At the very least, he was still an asshole.

“Get up. I let you sleep two hours. It’s time to work now.”

“No it’s not! Two hours isn’t even a nap!”

“It’s more than enough to be considered a nap!”

“Shut up! I said I’d get back to work at midnight and I meant it.” And with that, Judar turned away from Hakuryuu to go back to sleep.

“I didn’t say I’d tutor you just for you to sleep the whole time,” Hakuryuu grumbled as he moved closer to the bed quietly. Desperate times called for desperate measures. He grabbed the edges of the blanket Judar was trying to get back to sleep on top of and pulled it as hard as he could.

Judar made a noise best described as a screech as he was lifted into the air momentarily. After he processed what happened, Judar glared at Hakuryuu. “What the fuck.”

“I’m not going to waste time with you sleeping,” Hakuryuu said. “You wanted a nap and you got it. But you aren’t getting a second nap.”

Judar groaned as he sat up. He stretched, shirt lifting to show off his abs. Hakuryuu looked away. Didn’t need to know that, he thought to himself. Judar’s shirt wasn’t that long to begin with and Hakuryuu was surprised he hadn’t noticed sooner that Judar worked out.

“Which assignment was I on,” Judar grumbled as he fished the pile of papers on the floor next to Hakuryuu’s bed.

“You were doing your missing work from the first few units of your history class,” Hakuryuu said. He took a sip of his tea as Judar leafed through his unfinished assignments. He realized he was feeling nervous. From the excitement of waking Judar up, he rationalized. Nothing to do with Hakuei telling him to try being friends with Judar again.

Judar getting back to work gave Hakuryuu the chance to sort out his feelings a little. He’d invited Judar to help him get his life on track a little better. Trying to tell himself that he was completely indifferent to him wasn’t going to get him anywhere, just like Hakuei said.

To be clear, he only wanted to help Judar because of their shared childhood. He didn’t have any real attachment to the Judar sitting in front of him. This Judar was the one who hung out with Kougyoku and Kouha sometimes and other times pestered older men like Sinbad. For both being in high school, they really lived in different worlds.

Hakuryuu took a sip of his tea and looked at Judar to find him fidgeting again. “What.”

“I’m bored.”

“I know. But do your work.”

“What were you thinking about?”

Hakuryuu opened his mouth and closed it again when he was unable to think of what to say. He eventually settled on asking “Why?”

“Dunno. Looked like you wanted to talk. Staring and shit.”

Hakuryuu shrugged. Judar probably wouldn’t stop badgering him about it until he said something anyway. “Those people you’re always with. Do you like them?”

Judar tapped his pencil on his paper a few times. “Not really.”

“Why then?”

“Nothing better to do.”

“What about… Sinbad?” Hakuryuu had only known him as one of the men who came to parties and occasionally meetings at his house. Once Judar had been over to see one of his cousins at the same time Sinbad was and Hakuryuu was shocked to find they knew each other. How, he had no idea. Quite possibly one of the aforementioned parties. He didn’t like to get involved in his mother’s business and this was no exception. But he knew from that time that Judar had a strong interest in Sinbad and he wasn’t sure how much of it was just the man’s natural charm.

“He’s getting kinda boring,” Judar said, then dropped his pencil on the bed and sat up to meet Hakuryuu’s eyes. “I like you better.”

Hakuryuu had to look away. He couldn’t meet the expectation in Judar’s eyes. He never knew what to do when Judar’s words were coated with that overly friendly, flirty tone, and this was no exception. But he was feeling a little more inclined to try responding for once instead of pretending he didn’t notice.

“Hakuryuu,” Judar said as he got up from the bed, and his arms were just as little as Hakuryuu remembered them, bony as could be. “I’m tired of you asking the wrong questions. Tell me what you want from me.”

It hadn’t occurred to Hakuryuu that Judar might see helping him with his finals as wanting something from him. He briefly wondered if that was all he had to do with those other people. No one ever wanted anything from Hakuryuu, always assuming he just had nothing to offer. Just by looking at Judar it was clear he had… things to offer. But he hadn’t intended to take advantage of those things by helping him with homework.

“I don’t know,” Hakuryuu said. Judar sat on the floor next to him, graceless in a way that shouldn’t have been charming but reminded Hakuryuu of when Judar used to trip on his own clothes trying to walk.

“Tell me what you think you want then.”

Hakuryuu tried to repeat that he didn’t know but found his throat dry. Up close, Judar really was beautiful. It was hard to look away when he was staring with all the determination in the world, urging Hakuryuu silently to not drift away again.

For the first time Hakuryuu let the weight of Judar’s feelings reach him. He brought a hand to run through his own hair nervously as he tried to put his thoughts into words. “I don’t want to avoid you anymore,” he said lamely. “I want things to go back to how they were when we were kids.”

“I waited a really long time.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“But I don’t want things to be exactly how they were, either,” Judar said before moving closer, close enough that his intentions were clear. Hakuryuu closed his eyes. Maybe he didn’t want them to be exactly the same, either. He wouldn’t know until they tried.

Judar’s lips weren’t as soft as they looked (yes, he looked - how could he not when Judar could easily be a model?) but they were warmer than Hakuryuu would have guessed. His face felt cold when Judar pulled away.

It was only after the realization of what was happening, that he’d made up with Judar, that they’d kissed, that Hakuryuu remembered there was something else they should be doing.

“We should be studying.”


End file.
